Staying Organized with School!

I know many of my friends have already hit the pavement running their kids back to school but we do not go back till after labor day. Even though I am basking in the last days of summer at the beach, I did want to share some strategies that work in our household to keep the school papers, schedules and items under control. I guess the first thing I will say is we have a launch pad at out front door with hooks for every backpack. We will be homeschooling this year for the twins but we have always expected our kids to immediately unpack their bags. So many parents tell me their kids will not do this......Ummmm......yes, they will. They do it everyday at school folks.  Kids are sneaky and tend to think you are not very wise at times. They like for you to believe that they just drop them randomly on the classroom floor but  they have a certain spot they must put them, just ask them about it. Teach them the routine and have consequences ready for when they do not. Stick to your guns about this. (Every teacher will confirm this and has totally got your back on this one).
Some people store them in baskets or a shelf beside the door, I have hung them on the back on dining room chairs due to lack of a foyer before. I suggest you find whatever works for you and your house but every backpack needs a home. Trust me, your mornings will go so much smoother. You will love your life after implementing this strategy.

Once our children unpack their bags they must put everything that I need to sign or

read in my mailbox. I managed to pick these up at Family Dollar a couple of years ago for $3 ea and gave them each a coat of black spray paint so that they match my decor. ( I know they need to be repainted, it was on the to-do list this summer, hmmm....not sure what happened)

Before I had these , I stacked 5 letter trays on the breakfast counter. Whatever you decide to do, the goal should be to create  a mailbox for each family member. Once they put things in my mailbox , I read and sign at my convenience (usually after they are in bed).

The rule is it will be waiting in their box to pack up in the morning. I do not sign things thrown at me in the morning. Oh.... Too bad, too sad is all I can say about that. I know it sounds harsh but my job is to teach them responsibility. Very seldom will a teacher or an employer forgive procrastination or disorganization from your child. Your child will never admit it but they would rather learn this lesson from you than another adult.

Ok I am starting to preach, time to move on........

The maiboxes hold 4 different colors of  pocket folders. Each folder contains info that we must keep for reference or projects. This works really well especially if you seem to constantly misplace things your child brings home. For example we have folders for school, sports, goals&projects, and extacurricular activities. If they bring home info about an upcoming field trip, we put that info in the school folder. Lets say they have a game schedule & a snack roster for soccer, we put that in the sports folder. The goals and projects work well for items concerning long term projects or goals that your child needs to work with over a period of time. The other thing that I do is to transpose info into my calendar colorcoded for each child as items come in such as dates and times for certain events. The hard copy is always stored in their mailboxes so all parties involved can retrieve the info as needed.

The last thing I will talk about today will be the Homework Baskets we created for each child. Our children do not do homework in their rooms. Well I take that back, my eldest son just started last year doing homework in his room at his desk. He is 14 and very organized with his homework (Of course I am sure it has everything to do with all the systems  and organization I taught him along the way *LOL*) The reason we created Homework Baskets was very simple. When they sat down to do their homework, it always seemed I was asked the same thing. I need a pencil.... where is some graph paper....do we have a sharpener... I need a stapler....can I use your scissors. Ok I believe you have got the idea. Seriously, you would have thought they were nowhere with me when we bought supplies during the tax free weekend! Well, each child got a basket with the following in it: Pencils, pens, sharpener, scissors, glue sticks, markers, crayons, graph paper, bookmarks, tags, hi-liters, clips, calculator, ruler,colored pencils, index cards, erasers, a dictionary  and notebook paper. They also have a 3 ring binder which usually contains relevant information to their grade level studies such as mathematical charts, spelling rules, maps,etc. The only thing we do now is restock it every sunday night from the supply closet.

 I have found this helps with homework a great bit. If you have more than one child doing homework, make your children some study corrals. These are very easy to do. I used science fair project boards cut in half, then spraypainted and trimmed out with duct tape. We have found them essential  for our boys. It puts the focus where it needs to be.

My desire is that these tips will help you and your child have a great year......of course now I need to still figure out how to organize some homeschool items since this is all new to me. Just when I had my systems down so well, now I must go and change them to fit this new adventure in our lives. Have fun organizing!

I will be linking to:
Someday Crafts - Whatever goes Wednsedays
733 A Creative Blog - Sugar and Spice Weekly Party

Finders Keypers!

I received so many request for directions on how to make these doo-dads so I made a couple last night. This time I managed to take a few photos so maybe this will give you a better idea. As I stated in a previous post, my mom gave me one as a stocking stuffer this past year. I found out that they are actually called "Keypers". I just call mine key clippers. I made these key clippers to wrap around  purse handles for the teachers as end of the year gifts. They are very handy to have, the catch is to actually utilize it though. Honestly I kick myself when I do not. Oh how regretful I am that I did not just clip those keys so they would be hanging right on the inside. Digging in the bottom of my purse is like a landmine.  Fortunately I think I have finally made it a habit to use it.

I used the stamped washer as the decor piece but you could actually use anything: the scrabble tiles, charms, old jewelry pieces, watches, lockets, glass tiles, dog tags.....I think you get the idea. You will need some satin cord or ribbon, jump rings, crimper beads with ring to attach, stamped washer and a clipper.

The first thing you will do is to cut your cord to the desired length, fold it in half and  crimp the ends with the crimper bead so they are enclosed. You will attach a jump ring to the crimper bead. Once that is done, you may attach the stamped washer to another jump ring as well as any little beads or charms you like. I added a little pink bead to this one. Now you just attach the two jump rings together so your end result will look like this.

Attaching the clipper is really easy because you are looping the cord through the ring at the bottom of the clipper.  I wish I could tell you what this knot is called, maybe a slipknot, I don't know but hopefully you understand what  I am saying.

Pull the cord through till the knot is tight and firmly secure. I usually tie another knot to keep it from slipping.

You are done. All that is left is to use the same looping knot to attach the clipper to whatever bag you are using that day. It should look like this when after you have attached it to your tote. I always arrange it so the decor piece is hanging on the outside and the clipper is on the inside. 

Absolutely no reason to ever misplace your keys again!

 Happy crafting everyone!

I am linking this purse key clipper to 

Summer Reading Challenge

Well I have tried to post 3 times this week but my blogger account has been acting up, actually my whole google account has been hit or miss this week. That just means I have some catching up to do with you. We did make it to the library the other day to sign up for the summer reading program. We are lucky, we have a city and a county library so we signed up for both. We also swung by Borders and Barnes & Nobles Bookstores to pick up their summer reading sheets. As happy as I am to have my boys in all of these programs, this is alot of sheets & events to keep up with. 3 boys, 4 programs.....hmmm....get the picture?  The boys are still working on their organization skills. I tend to hear "Mom, where is _______? " at least a hundred times a day (ok, I am blowing that out of proportion but honestly it FEELS like it). So I created our summer reading binder. I am a vertical filer. I tend to think better this way and have a lot less of a chance to misplace it if it is in a binder or on a clipboard. So this is what is in the binder: 10 vinyl sheet protectors, one for every child to keep his reading sheets, a sheet for each locations summer events and a sheet for me (They offer an adult summer challenge too) . I put our receipts from the libraries in the front pocket of the binder. This is great to doublecheck that all books are accounted for before we leave to return them. I use the back pocket to store the book review sheets that the boys fill out so that we can discuss the books and I can monitor their comprehension. 

It has been great to utilize this system. I feel so much better knowing that all the info is in one place. Which by the way is always stored on my desk. You do not want this little fellow walking all over the house. They must come to it to record their info. When we are ready to go to the library, I just grab our binder and basket of books to go. A lot less headaches and nobody can say they have lost their sheets!  If you are interested in the book review sheets,  you may find them  at Super Teachers Worksheets . Hope everyone has a great day! :)

I am linking to the following parties, be sure to check them out.

one sock, two socks, red socks, blue socks.....

I had big plans to finish up some big projects in the twins room but that was sidelined with an illness Gaelan brought home. Soooo I had to work on a project that was super easy, quick and cheap. I decided it was time to get their sock drawer under control. More than likely you have seen the sock organizers they sell like this one. They usually cost around $9.

After looking at it for a time I really figured I could do the same thing with some posterboard, cardboard, or tagboard for all of our drawers. Normally their socks look like this in a drawer.

Since I had posterboard around the house, it was an obvious choice.

I measured the drawers width and depth. The boys and I cut the posterboard into strips according to the measurements.

We cut up halfway every 3.5 inches apart on all of the strips.

After cutting the strips, you can interlock them by sliding the cuts into one another.

Once they are interlocked, you can slide it in the drawer and you have

a nice little square to store the socks in.

Overall this turned out great for the price and it has made such a difference

with them putting all of their clothes away.

 So lets review my requirements for this project:

It must be super easy..... my 9 yr olds did most of the work.

It must be quick.....hmmm took maybe 10 minutes total.

It must be cheap..... cost less than a dollar!

Now I just need to make some more to organize the rest......

I am linking to these great DIY parties, be sure to check them out for more ideas!

 

 

Laundry Room Woes!

I am sure most of you have laundry room woes. My biggest woe - It is not a room! It is a "closet". How do you store things and keep it functional too? Oh and did I mention everything has to color coordinate for me. When things do not, well I tend to suffer from visual distraction. It mentally clutters up my mind so I can not perform the task at hand. With that in mind, I decided I needed a color scheme. I chose white, navy and taupe. The walls of this laundry "closet" were painted taupe and had a cute border of laundry hanging out to dry so I used that to work with. Unfortunately it only had one wire shelf in it (which is way too high for a vertically challenged person) so I knew I needed to add a smaller shelf at a lower height to put my detergent, downy, oxiclean and misc laundry goods on. I stuck with the navy and white color scheme for all of the containers and it truly makes a difference. Overall I am very happy with the end result. What do you think?